Youxia
by ChocolateConfectionaries
Summary: A Hunter, cast adrift in the sea of time, lands ashore in an age of heroes and tyrants. [Jaune ISOT to Eastern Han dynasty-China]


"Hah!"

With one strong swing and a shout, sharp steel bit halfway into the battered dummy. Only ease of practice kept its arm in place, having delivered enough force to bend the twine of hay, leather skin and wood askew. Sharp breaths left their owner as he pulled the sword out of the dummy and planted it firmly into loamy earth.

A few moments passed as the man inspected his handiwork. Despite his fatigue, he had enough energy to figure a smile while stretching the worn muscles of his limbs, twisting and pulling the sore ones at just the right angles and spots. It was in simple pleasures like these where he found refuge after a grueling bout of training. Likewise, nature provides even with, or especially in, the absence of human company: sunlight caressing fair skin slick with sweat; cool breeze sweeping past golden, roughspun hair; sparrow song from the treetops dancing with rapt ears.

Breathing crisp air deep, he turned around and lazily regarded the hamlet a few _li_ [1] away. Millet [2] fields stretched outwards from houses of wood and thatch, stopping short of the hills to his west. Clusters of buildings - some meticulously designed in grids, others haphazardly arranged such that no two facades shared the same direction - seemed to sprawl from one edge of the horizon to the other, cut into portions by narrow dirt thoroughfares. The sun had just unveiled itself fully from the forest treetops, and so the early rising farmers accompanied it, moving from one row to another like motes of colored grain before its warm gaze becomes a scorching glare.

It was yet another beautiful day in the humble hamlet's outskirts, where he had suddenly awoken to those years ago. Two? Three? Time seemed to slip by him without watches and clocks, instead seeking refuge in the four- wait, _five_ seasons [3], in turn heralded by the phases of a whole moon.

Equally conspicuous in their absence were the hordes of Grimm, which by now haunted his dreams rather than the lives of others - for that, he was thankful. Almost made his losses worthwhile, if nothing else...

He shook those thoughts, and the trusty old pang that came with, away.

...Not that the lack of either seconds or Grimm were any excuse to stop training, of course. Physical shape and combat prowess were equally needed to better protect the inhabitants of his new home.

Besides, his partner wouldn't have wanted him to stop, would she? The horror she would have felt at seeing him out of shape, her efforts for naught, was no small reason for his persistence. "One should honor their elder's deeds," said Scholar Yue once [4]. She may not be his elder in age, but she was damn well his elder in all kinds of combat...

The young man had barely enough time to reminisce before rustling leaves brought him back to clarity. Within seconds sword hand met sword grip, and within two more sword flat caught the force of hardwood in mid-air. A push with his forearm sent the assailant flying backwards, who righted their stance as to land in good order near the glade's edge.

Despite the surprise, the man let out a chuckle as he lowered his guard. Very few had deigned to fight him willingly these days. Sneaking in his free time with two wooden _jian_? [5] The brat's name easily rolled off his tongue.

"Missed me by a few seconds, Bei," he said, clicking his tongue in preamble. "Good effort though!"

The now-named Bei grumbled and stomped the ground with a childish pout. "Swear I had you this time! You were cheating again, weren't you Uncle Huang?!" he accused, pointing a sword towards him.

"Uncle Huang" [6] - that was his name now, because apparently the old one was difficult to pronounce - sighed as he sheathed his sword on its proper scabbard, leaned against the tall mulberry tree beside him. As always, Bei's persistence was as endearing as it was irritating: admirable ambition honed towards one annoying goal.

This deserves only one response!

Energy pooled into leg muscle and, with a mighty kick against solid ground, Huang crossed several paces in one stride. By the second kick he was mere _chi_ [7] from wide-eyed Bei, who had crossed his _jian_ in front of him by instinct. Careful to waste little momentum, Huang reached a hand forwards-

"Wh- Hey! Quit it!"

-and furiously ruffled the little brat's hair. Hardwood clattered audibly against the rocky path as their owner's scrawny hands darted towards their true, colossal foe.

"Firstly," Huang held up a free hand's finger while the other kept their relentless assault, "old Sunzi said that-"

"That 'all warfare is based on deception,'" [8] Bei finished, hands still trying (and failing) to bat Huang's hand away from his now-mussy jet black hair. Wide eyes turned upwards to glare at the swordsman as he said, "I know that, Uncle! S'why I tried catching you off guard and all, but you never fell for any one of them…"

"Which brings me to my second point." Huang held up another finger as his other hand slowed, then parted from the boy's head. "You're only ten name-days-"

"Eleven, old man!"

…Right. Year one starts the moment a baby leaves the womb. [9] Calm down! Who's the brat to say what's old and what isn't anyway?!

"Eleven," Huang dragged out with gritted teeth, "name-days old. Anyway, the village elders didn't just string random words together when they said wisdom comes with age. Learn long enough and you'll grow the kind of wit that can hatch a plan for all kinds of threats, big or small."

"That can't be everything, right?" Bei murmured, seemingly downcast eyes spying the ground.

"...I'm sorry?"

Suddenly the brat met Huang's look with his own. His long earlobes swayed against the swift, sudden head tilt. "I haven't seen anyone jump almost five _zhang_ [10] as easy as that. Or swat a pack of bandits away like they were gadflies. Or, or calm a whole village in a bad winter just by telling stories!"

Crap. Usually he was careful not to let too much of his abilities show, lest he invite questions on where they came from. Questions exactly like Bei's, who by now was staring at him as if with stars rather than human eyes.

'Big mistake there, "Uncle Huang"...' he chided himself. His mind jogged carefully to pick the right words for the starstruck boy below.

"W-Well…" Huang began, a finger idly scratching his cheek, "that can be a tale for another time?"

Just like that, the brat's picturesque frown came with the breeze.

That didn't work as well as he hoped. Perhaps a change of conversation would do?

After clapping once to break the silence, Huang said, "So! What brought you here in the outskirts of town? You didn't come here just to bother me, did you?"

Being honest, Huang was slightly curious himself. Wouldn't be too surprising if Bei did go out here just to nibble at his free time. Not since the kid vowed to all and sundry that he shall, and to quote verbatim, "protect the people from the strange foreigner's designs" has the older man seen much peace in the breaks wedged between his proper obligations to his gracious host.

At least it had improved in time; pranks soon evolved into duels and spars after he'd shown his swordsmanship once, and childish curses became curious questions aimed at someone who had suddenly appeared next to the north gates during a heavy storm, apparently near-bleeding to death. He'd answered as truthfully as possible, of course, but with little knowledge of the circumstances himself most amounted to retellings of his best recollection of that night.

"..._Mama_ says it's time for breakfast," Bei eventually muttered out, glare still boring holes at him. Well, less "boring holes" and more "poking with a stick" from how much (or rather, how little) force it carried. "Said I can bring _Shuang Gu_ [11] if I wanted to. Big, dumb cheater..."

Huang sighed. It seemed Lady Liu encouraged her son to break into his daily warm-ups this time. He had only wellsprings of respect for the widow who offered him sanctuary - but Brothers above, if she only intervened between him and her child whenever it was time for either work, meal or tea. Otherwise she was content watching from the sidelines, weaving baskets and mats, as a grown man runs circuits around their house chasing a cheeky little brat for _perfectly_ reasonable reasons.

But enough griping. Breakfast was waiting for them back home, after all!

Smiling, Huang beckoned the brat follow him to the tree, where he left both his sword and tunic. "Snuck a glance in the kitchen?" he asked.

Bei trotted behind him, his hardwood weaponry tucked tightly against the crook of his arm. "Just some noodles and _jiaozi_." [12]

"Isn't it a bit too early for meat heavier than _jiaozi_?"

"At least I don't leave the table whenever _mama_ makes duck blood soup!"

Huang repressed a shudder as he stuck one arm in a loose sleeve. "Blood soup is… blood soup. Can't blame me for sticking with what my gut says."

"Ha!"

Having fitted his plain brown tunic, Huang slipped his ensheathed sword on the makeshift hemp belt around his waist. The heavy amalgam of metal swayed as he turned around to face the little intruder. "How about we call things even and head back home before the food gets cold and Lady Liu starts to worry?" he said.

"Only if you tell me another one of your stories. Like," Bei scrunched his face, before it lit up like a light bulb, "like the Four Heavenly Hunters of Mount _Xìnbiao_!" [13]

Oh, right. The "Four Heavenly Hunters". Maybe it had been a mistake to spin stories out of them just to keep the brat off his back that one time. Nowadays it would be far too soon before he stops yapping about the "Yellow Dragon and the Bee". Or the "Crater-Faced Reaper Seeking Companions". Or the "White Princess and Her Hundred Suitors"...

As he muttered apologies in the air, both for what he had done and will do, Huang scoured his memories for a suitable topic. Eventually he found one and, after some hesitation from himself because of the subject matter, mustered every last bit of his imagination to construct a similar-looking story. From there it was a matter of swapping characters, making analogues, and slightly changing details here and there, beginning to end.

In a matter of seconds, Huang had conjured a story out of his entry to Beacon. Not his proudest moment, but perhaps it can serve as a moral fable for little Bei. Brothers know he'd have seared every detail into his mind given the chance.

"How about 'The Rooster and the Warrior'?" he chimed.

Intrigued, Bei edged closer. Huang grinned; now he had the kid's full attention. An endearing reminder that he was still a child who, as all children are wont, love a good story. The older man began as they walked, Bei right beside him.

"Once upon a time, there lived a rooster who dreamed of joining the Gray Emperor's army..."

And so the duo traveled the well-trodden path leading back to their village. For Huang awaited his host's hearty, comely food; a spare change of clothes; and the company of a hammock. Simple comforts to restore balance to his body before going about his daily tasks: chopping wood, tending to the garden, bringing baskets and sandals to the county market [13], helping cook lunch and dinner or foraging for their meals' ingredients. Then a quick dip in the nearby creek before bedtime, and a return to his quiet glade with a mulberry tree by chicken's call the next morning.

Just another day in the erstwhile Hunter's new life in this strange, foreign world away from the ones he knew and loved. Slow and plodding, yet simple and calm - where his most pressing concern is memorizing stroke orders and learning the rules of _go _[15], rather than keeping villages from dying off to another wave of Grimm, or taking stock of how much Dust the team has left, or looking behind his shoulder and hoping they're all still there. Hoping _she's_ still there, unlike _her_. He couldn't ask for more in a home far away from home.

Then again, this land is vast and, from the maps he'd seen, much larger than a handful of hamlets such as his. Who knows? Maybe soon he'll find a chance to stretch his legs for once.

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**[1] A ****_li_**** (里****) is a Chinese unit of measurement roughly equivalent to half a kilometer. This, and other units referred in later footnotes, were thought to have first been promulgated by Qin Shi Huangdi (259 -210 BCE). Nowadays they have been superseded by the metric system, although much like Imperial units in the Anglosphere, they still see use on a case-to-case basis.**

**[2] Grains such and millet and wheat compose Chinese cuisine's staple food in the Han dynasty. Despite its ubiquity in modern Chinese cuisine, it wouldn't be until later dynasties, where the southern provinces and their rice paddies were better integrated with the more developed north, that rice would come to fulfill the Chinese diet's carbohydrate intake so dominantly.**

**[3] In accordance with ****_wuxing_**** (五行****), or the Five Elements system, traditional Chinese timekeeping divides one year into five seasons, each with a corresponding element. These are as follows: Spring (Wood), Summer (Fire), Harvest (Earth), Autumn (Metal), and Winter (Water).**

**[4] ****_Ceng Zi said: "When they are careful (about their parents) to the end and continue in reverence after (their parents) are long gone, the virtue of the people will return to its natural depth."_**** (Analects 1:9)**

**[5] ****_Jian_**** (剑****) are broadswords roughly 28 inches in length, used in warfare since at least the Spring and Autumn Period (771-476 BCE). Also known as the "Gentleman of Weapons", since being adept at its use requires and, in turn, signifies higher standing - analogous to the sword's association with knights of chivalry in European folklore.**

**[6] _Huang_ (****黄****) = "yellow". Seventh most common surname in China. Also refers to the MC's golden hair; coincidentally, the color itself bears his name also. Ming-era authors might (anachronistically) even look at his hair color and assume he's of noble bearing somehow, given yellow's association with the imperial court by their time.**

**[7] One ****_chi _****(尺****) corresponds to just under a third of a meter in length.**

**[8] Art of War 1:18**

**[9] Unlike what most of us would be familiar with, East Asian age reckoning systems proscribe that a child's age begins at one on the day of their birth.**

**[10] One ****_zhang _****(丈****) corresponds to about five meters in length. **

**[11] The ****_Shuang Gu Jian_**** (双鼓剑****) are a pair of broadswords associated with a certain warlord in the Three Kingdoms period.**

**[12] ****_Jiaozi_**** (饺子****) are small dumplings filled with ground meat and vegetable and wrapped in a thin roll of dough with its sides pressed into a tight seal. Can be prepared year-round or on special occasions such as New Year's. Like a lot of side dishes, goes well with soy sauce.**

**[13] ****_Xinbiao _****(信标****) = "beacon", according to Google Translate. **

**[14] Eastern Han China uses a straightforward administration system based around a hamlet, or a community of roughly one hundred families with a sergeant-at-arms and a tax collector. A number of hamlets make a district; a number of districts make a county; a number of counties make a commandery; and a number of commanderies make a province. **

**[15] ****_Go_**** (围棋****) is a strategy board game involving a 19x19-grid board and black and white playing pieces called stones. To summarize, the main objective is to acquire more "territory", indicated by the grids' intersections, and stones on the board than the other player.**

* * *

**A/N: Here's something I've been working on since Christmas, inspired by many a playthrough of Total War: Three Kingdoms. Would recommend wholeheartedly. That said, enjoy.**


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